Entries tagged with western pacific

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Location: Fernley, Nevada
Crossposts: https://kevin-standlee.livejournal.com/1829056.html

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Passing Heritage

This evening, a Union Pacific intermodal train was pulling in to Fernley siding to allow Amtrak to pass. It had an unusual unit on the lead, but because it takes so long for my phone to bring up the camera, I did not get a very good photo of it.

( Remembering the WP )

Amtrak came through almost exactly on time, and just a couple of minutes after it passed, the intermodal train started back up and continued west.

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Location: Fernley, Nevada
Crossposts: https://kevin-standlee.livejournal.com/1809794.html

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Impromptu Train Documentary

While Lisa and I were visiting the Western Pacific Railway Museum last month, she shot a bunch of video to get more experience handling the big Panasonic camera. She also fitted me with a microphone so we could get good sound while I talked about trains. Lisa has edited the first set of video she shot during that trip, which was a series I improvised about UP business car 105, which is on display at the museum.

( Watch for the cameo by Kuma Bear )

I was mostly making this up after looking at the placards and using what I know about railroads. I'm sure I could have done better if I'd had an actual script and time to practice. Also, we did need to dodge the relatively few other people who were visiting that day. Because no trains were running and it was late in their season, there weren't many people around, but that's good for what we wanted to do.

Lisa says that she knows her technique isn't the best, but she's eager to learn more and just needs more practice.

We did have to reassure the people at the museum that, despite the professional camera, we were not shooting a "professional" video and only intended to post what we shot on YouTube. I don't even try to monetize my videos, as I see no point to it.

Current Mood: peaceful
Current Location: Fernley, Nevada
Crossposts: https://kevin-standlee.livejournal.com/1795624.html

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Portola Ho

Yesterday, as I earlier mentioned, Lisa and I drove over to Portola to visit the Western Pacific Railroad Museum. Lisa and I are members (which includes free admission), but it had been almost two years since our last visit, as we misread the museum's open dates last October after they'd closed for the season.

( Bear Wants to Rides, Toos )

There were no trains to ride today because train rides only are offered Memorial Day to Labor Day (plus special events like pumpkin patch trains and Santa Trains, but that's later in the year), so the museum was rather quiet. However, that was helpful for Lisa, who brought the Panasonic P2 and the remote microphone and put me to work doing a impromptu documentary about the museum. This gives Lisa practice working the camera, and it will give me practice using the editing software. It's more complex than turning WSFS Business Meeting videos into usable YouTube MP4s, but unlike WSFS, there's no time pressure.

Current Mood: happy
Current Location: Fernley, Nevada

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Western Pacific Railroad Museum

Today, Lisa and I finally got to go see the Western Pacific Railroad Museum in Portola, California. I've known of this museum for years, but never visited it before, and even after moving to Fernley I kept thinking it was a lot farther away than it really is. In fact, it's only 80 miles from Fernley, so it made for a fine day trip.

( A Good Day on the Rails )

We had a good day out at the museum, but it's a good thing we bought a membership, because there's still plenty to explore, and we will be coming back.

( Airport Detour )

After our day of sightseeing in our backyard, we made a stop at Winco in Sparks for some groceries, then headed home. It was a long day, but an entertaining one.